Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.

What a difference 3 days makes! The road leading to South Lake still has lots of color, but the peak has passed and the colors have really dulled, and quite a bit of snow has melted. McGee was the same with muted colors. But, the town of Bishop is gorgeous, with the cottonwoods and ashes really glowing!

Well done web page reports with nice images. An issue I personally have with McGee Creek aspen in the Mount Baldwin area your title shot shows is until later morning, the sun at this time of year is blocked by canyon walls. That is fine for intimate landscapes along the creek, however I prefer all sun on fall leaves for full landscapes. Thus in the fall prefer the area best between noon and 3pm PDT.

You might tweak color balance in a few of your shadowed images, especially the cyan cast on early morning shots. Makes the water and aspen trunk looks bluer than our eyes perceive. Digital sensors tend to do that. Doing so will result in a more natural image and the yellow leaves will pop more.

On the your Convict report, the image below "...we were heading down the southern trail, surrounded by yellow aspens." Trees in that image are black cottonwood, populus trichocarpa. Most of the Convict Lake shore contains black cottonwood though there are lots of aspen in the soggy creek inlet meadow of the lake. Further up the canyon it is almost all black cottonwood and willows.

Notice you seemed to have an issue with cold temps so wee general advice to everyone.

I often see people out in the Eastern Sierra during the fall poorly dressed. Especially in popular places like North Lake (9200 feet) where below freezing temps at sunrise are common. Fall in lower urban areas is often balmy but not so in the higher mountains. A friend and I would often be bundled up like the Pirelli Tire Man in full winter gear, parka shell, multi layers, balaclava, winter gloves, long johns, etc. In the fall I always bring full winter gear and then choose to wear what can get by comfortably each day. And then one of those big photo workshop groups would arrive. Of course they probably were all down at balmy Bishop (4100 feet) motels and then carpooled up as a group. And out of the SUV's would usually see some in shorts and t-shirts with some kind of lightweight coat while others were better dressed though still not enough to be comfortable. A bit later they'd be setting up their tripods ways down the shore, shivering. I've experienced single digit temps down in the Mono Lake area at 7000 feet in early October and just last week across the region, several inches of snow fell at lower grove elevations with a foot at ridgelines.

Thank you for all of the comments. I especially appreciate the correction with the cottonwoods. I am a novice at identifying plants and trees. Do you recommend a good resource on that? I think I need to buy a book.

Regarding photographing fall color before the leaves are in direct light, I think there is room for both. They two scenarios create completely different images and moods, and both are good for me. One aspect of that shot that you could not easily pull off on a weekend afternoon is getting any sort of reflection.

Lastly, regarding the cold, I hope you read the story about me being half naked in 10 degree weather looking for my keys. That was the whole point of the story really. I was still a bit a chilly as I shot sunrise sure, but I was going for a hike and had to carry all of my clothing for the day so was trying to not carry to much winter gear all day.

Yes as a Sierra explorer its useful to ID trees and there are not too many species to learn unlike wildflowers or shrubs. Likely find something simple at Borders or check "Sierra Nevada trees" on Amazon then buy a used book for a few bucks.

As for photographing fall leaves in different light, indeed in some situations photographing from skylight instead of the Sun is preferred. As noted I prefer to photography broader landscapes in sunlight while intimate landscapes and below canopies in cloud diffuse light or skylight because it is otherwise too contrasty. This shot of yours is a good example of a shot that would be useless in sunlight:

And likewise here is one of my intimate creek shots from last Thursday with my Canon G10 that I also exposed a Provia 4x5 transparency on that I'll get back from development next week:

I was hoping for midday diffuse cloud light that would have been in the EV10 to EV12 range but ended up having to work at EV6 to EV8 light like you did from shadowed skylight. Your McGee title shot I mentioned looks nice as you processed it, however in the best direct side lighting I'd expect would be better.

On the other hand this image where you have direct lighting of the foreground cottonwood while Mt. Morrison is still shaded came out beautifully so indeed there are no rigid guidelines as one ought always consider the natural light for what is possible.

Not quite from the heart of the Sierra, but this is looking at the eastern Sierra. This morning I was watching a time-lapse video of the last week's webcam shots at Bishopweather.com, and as it looped I noticed that there was a big color change on the trees in the foreground over just one week. You can also see how fast the snow that fell on the 9th is melting away on the crest.

Here are a couple of screenshots from this time-lapse video, used with permission from Cory Freeman at Bishopweather.com.

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Hi rileySB, your top image is of black oak,quercus kelloggii, that have leaves a bit like valley oak. One difference is each lobe ends in a tiny often sharp point. Black oaks grow thoughout California including where I live in the SF Bay Area at elevations at least up somewhat in hills.

Fall color thread with a link to a trip feature I posted last night on our Photography forum: